The Essential Ingredient for Effective Safeguarding
Effective sharing of information between practitioners and local organisations and agencies is essential for early identifcation of need, assessment and the provision of support to help keep children safe.
With this in mind, The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (2024) describe information sharing as the ‘perennial issue’ in child protection and safeguarding work as it continues to be a complicating factor in helping children and families.
With neglect featuring in over half of children’s situations reviewed by the panel, understanding information sharing in our identifcation and response to neglect is crucial
Practitioners should be proactive in sharing information as early as possible to help identify, assess and respond to risks or concerns about the safety and welfare of children, whether this is when problems are first emerging, or where a child is already known to local authority children’s social care (e.g. they are being supported as a child in need or have a child protection plan). Practitioners should be alert to sharing important information about any adults with whom that child has contact, which may impact the child’s safety or welfare.
Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way of the need to promote the welfare, and protect the safety of children, which must always be the paramount concern.
The DfE Information Sharing: Advice for Practitioners 2024 provides further guidance in the format of 7 Golden Rules.
RULE 1
All children have a right to be protected from abuse and neglect. Protecting a child from such harm takes priority over protecting their privacy, or the privacy rights of the person(s) failing to protect them. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) provide a framework to support information sharing where practitioners have reason to believe failure to share information may result in the child being at risk of harm.
RULE 2
When you have a safeguarding concern, wherever it is practicable and safe
to do so, engage with the child and/or their carer(s), and explain who you intend to share information with, what information you will be sharing and why. You are not required to inform them, if you have reason to believe that doing so may put the child at increased risk of harm (e.g., because their carer(s)may harm the child, or react violently to anyone seeking to intervene, or because the child might withhold information or withdraw from services).
RULE 3
You do not need consent to share personal information about a child and/or
members of their family if a child is at risk or there is a perceived risk of
harm. You need a lawful basis to share information under data protection law, but when you intend to share information as part of action to safeguard a child at
possible risk of harm, consent may not be an appropriate basis for sharing. It is good practice to ensure transparency about your decisions and seek to work cooperatively with a child and their carer(s) wherever possible. This means you should consider any objection the child or their carers may have to proposed information sharing, but you should consider overriding their objections if you believe sharing the information is necessary to protect the child from harm.
RULE 4
Seek advice promptly whenever you are uncertain or do not fully understand how the legal framework supports information sharing in a particular case. Do not leave a child at risk of harm because you have concerns you might be criticised for sharing information. Instead, find out who in your organisation/ agency can provide advice about what information to shareand with whom. This may be your manager/ supervisor, the designated safeguarding children professional, the data protection /information governance lead (e.g., Data Protection Officer), Caldicott Guardian, or relevant policy or legal team. If you work for a small charity or voluntary organisation, follow the NSPCC’s safeguarding guidance.
RULE 5
When sharing information, ensure you and the person or agency/organisation that receives the information take steps to protect the identities of any individuals (e.g., the child, a carer, a neighbour, or a
colleague) who might suffer harm if their details became known to an abuser or one of their associates.
RULE 6
Only share relevant and accurate information with individuals or agencies/ organisations that have a role in safeguarding the child and/or providing their family with support, and only share the information they need to support the provision of their services. Sharing information with a third party rarely requires you to share an entire record or case-file – you must only share information that is necessary, proportionate for the intended purpose,relevant, adequate and accurate.
RULE 7
Record the reasons for your information sharing decision, irrespective of whether or not you decide to share information. When another practitioner or organisation requests information from you, and you decide not to share it, be prepared to explain why you chose not to do so. Be willing to reconsider your decision if the requestor shares new information that might cause you to regard information you hold in a new light. When recording any decision, clearly set out the rationale and be prepared to explain your reasons if you are asked.
Our Plymouth Building Support framework and threshold guidance includes a helpful flowchart of when and how to share information and also highlights the key points below…
DON’T ASSUME
All practitioners should not assume that someone else will pass on information that they think may be critical to keeping a child safe. If a practitioner has concerns about a child’s welfare and considers that they may be a child in need or that the child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm, then they should share the information with local authority children’s social care and/or the police.
MOVING AROUND
All practitioners should be particularly alert to the importance of sharing information when a
child moves from one local authority into another, due to the risk that knowledge pertinent to keeping a child safe could be lost.
RECORD & EXPLAIN
When decisions are made to share or withhold information, practitioners should record who has been given the information and why. Practitioners should engage and explain with families around why that information may be shared with partners in order to support the family, unless this would
place the child at risk or minimise the voice of the child being understood.
SPECIAL CATEGORY
Be aware that the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR allows you to store and share information for safeguarding purposes, including information which is sensitive and personal. This should be classified as, ‘Special category personal data.’
PROCESSING CONDITION
Where practitioners need to share special category personal data, they should be aware
that the Data Protection Act 2018 contains ‘safeguarding of children and individuals at risk’ as a processing condition that allows practitioners to share information. This includes
allowing practitioners to share information without consent, if it is not possible to gain consent, it cannot be reasonably expected that a practitioner gains consent, or if to gain consent would place a child at risk.
LAWFUL BASES
The GDPR provides a number of ‘Bases’ for sharing personal information. It is not necessary to seek consent to share information for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of a child provided that there is a lawful basis to process any personal information required.
LEGAL OBLIGATION OR PUBLIC TASK
The legal bases that may be appropriate for sharing data in these circumstances could be ‘legal obligation’ or ‘public task’ which includes the performance of a task in the public interest or the exercise of official authority. Each of the lawful bases under GDPR has different requirements. In some circumstances, it may be appropriate to obtain consent to share data but it is important to note that the GDPR sets a high standard for consent which is specific, time limited and can be withdrawn.
IN CO-OPERATION WITH
When appropriate, it continues to be good practice to ensure transparency and to engage and explain with parents/ carers that you are sharing information for these purposes and seek to work cooperatively with them.
IN SUMMARY
In summary, you do not need consent to share personal information. It is one way to comply with the data protection legislation but not the only way. It is not necessary to seek consent to share information for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of a child provided that there is a lawful basis to process any personal information required.